As we told you earlier, the staff at the Public Utilities Commission have a lot to go over in the next month. BEL and BWSL have pending matters before the commission and there's one other thing. A big thing: BTL is impeding access to sites that offer cheap or free calls through what's called VOIP, the voice over internet protocol. The VOIP services are cutting BTL's earnings from this lucrative area of operations and the company argues that when you cut that revenue, it erodes the cross subsidy the company must give to support unprofitable areas such as a rural phones.
So now BTL is experimenting with blocking access to sites such as Skype, Vonage and even Yahoo Messenger where internet calls can be made. It's causing an uproar among users of the services, and now the PUC as industry regulator, has had to get involved. Anna Rossington told us what the PUC is doing to resolve this thorny issue.
Anna Rossington,
"The PUC is organizing a public forum on VOIP which will take place on Wednesday the 26th of April and we are using that forum to then inform our policy and our view."
Jules Vasquez,
That's something that perhaps should have been held last year when the sites were not blocked. Is it not an urgent regulatory issue right now, right here, that many businesses which use this for their operational purposes are no longer able to use it and in fact there is a regulatory issue that needs resolution at the moment, presently?
Anna Rossington,
"I think there is an issue that needs resolution, we've recognized that and that's why we've organized a forum."
Jules Vasquez,
I'll say to you what the Chief Justice said to the PUC some years ago, 'you are the regulator, the PUC is the regulator, its no one else's job to make a decision.' What's so hard about that?
Anna Rossington,
"Because we are also mandated to listen to the stakeholders' views and so we want to hear all the different people's perspective on the subject before we go through and make a decision."
Of course, while BTL is putting the brakes over voice over the internet, the irony is that, last we checked, the company's popular 10-10-199 service uses the voice over the internet protocol.
